The Transatlantic

How does the Soviet Union's approach to human rights compare to contemporary Russia? Bakhti is joined by historian Benjamin Nathans to discuss the evolution of the Soviet dissident movement, what Vladimir Putin learned from his time as a KGB agent quashing dissent in the Soviet Union, and the lessons of this period for those resisting authoritarianism today.
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Benjamin Nathans teaches and writes about Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, modern European Jewish history, and the history of human rights. Currently, he is the Endowed Term Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. His most recent book, To The Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement, was awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, the Pushkin House Book Prize, the Vucinich Prize in Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies, and the Zelnik Prize in History. It tells the story of dissent in the USSR from Stalin's death to the collapse of communism, exploring the idea and practice of rights and the rule of law in the setting of "mature socialism."
Nathans is also author of Beyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter With Late Imperial Russia and edited A Research Guide to Materials on the History of Russian Jewry (19th and Early 20th Centuries) in Selected Archives of the Former Soviet Union [in Russian]. He is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement. He is the co-editor and contributor to two scholarly volumes, Culture Front: Representing Jews in Eastern Europe (2014) and From Europe's East to the Middle East: Israel's Russian and Polish Lineages (2021).
 
This podcast is hosted by Bakhti Nishanov and produced by Carly Breland, in conjunction with the Senate Recording Studio.

Bakhti is joined by Sarah McLaughlin, a senior scholar focused on global expression at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Sarah and Bakhti discuss the difference in free speech traditions between the United States and Europe, threats to speech on both sides of the Atlantic, and why Americans apply free speech selectively along political lines. Sarah also talks through why Americans should defend the right to free expression even, and especially, when it is painful for them.
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Sarah McLaughlin is the Senior Scholar, Global Expression at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and author of Authoritarians in the Academy: How the Internationalization of Higher Education and Borderless Censorship Threaten Free Speech. She writes regularly about the state of free speech around the world and her work has been featured in outlets including Foreign Policy, The Guardian, and The Los Angeles Times.
This podcast is hosted by Bakhti Nishanov and produced by Alanna Novetsky and Carly Breland, inconjunction with the Senate Recording Studio.

Why does religious freedom matter in today's world? Ambassador Sam Brownback draws on decades of experience to explain why it is central to advancing human rights and strengthening global security. He also examines how Russia's actions and Ukraine's wartime challenges have brought new urgency and complexity to these issues.
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Sam Brownback has spent decades in senior public service advancing human dignity, democratic values, and freedom of religion around the world. He currently serves as Co-Chair of the International Religious Freedom Summit and Chairman of the National Committee for Religious Freedom, leading global efforts to protect religious liberty and counter repression.

From 2018 to 2021, Brownback served as United States Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, where he worked across regions and faith communities to confront religious persecution and advocate for the rights of believers facing state repression. His diplomatic service built on a long legislative record focused on freedom, human rights, and the rule of law.
 
Previously, Brownback represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1996 to 2011. During his tenure, he was a principal architect of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, landmark legislation that institutionalized U.S. advocacy for religious liberty worldwide, and the author of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, the first comprehensive federal law to criminalize human trafficking and expand protections for victims. He was a commissioner with the Helsinki Commission from 1999 to 2010, serving as chairman from 2005 to 2006. While on the Commission, Brownback was outspoken about countering human rights abuses worldwide, particularly in Russia and North Korea.

Earlier in his career, Brownback served in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Kansas's Second Congressional District and as Secretary of the Kansas Department of Agriculture, becoming the youngest person to hold that office. Honoring a term limits pledge, he left the Senate and ran for Kansas governor in 2010. He was inaugurated in 2011 as the 46th Governor of Kansas and was re-elected in 2014 before returning to national and international service. He is one of only six individuals in American history to have served in all four roles: congressman, senator, governor, and ambassador. 

A native of Garnett, Kansas, Brownback was raised on his family's Linn County farm. He earned his undergraduate degree from Kansas State University, where he served as student body president, and his law degree from the University of Kansas. He and his wife, Mary, have five children and eleven grandchildren. 

 
This podcast is hosted by Bakhti Nishanov and produced by Alanna Novetsky, in conjunction with the Senate Recording Studio.

On this week's episode, Bakhti sits down with Nastassia Rouda, director of Nasha Niva, a Belarusian media outlet operating in exile in Vilnius. Rouda discusses how she and her colleagues have used new types of content and social media to remain relevant and grow their audience inside of Belarus, even as Belarusians experience economic downturn and political repression. She talks about how she and other hosts on their network rely on humor to keep hope alive for a freer future for their country and maintain interest in free media among the millions of Belarusians of all ages who tune into their online shows. 
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Nastassia Rouda is the director of Nasha Niva, Belarus's oldest newspaper. Founded in 1906 upon Belarus's independence, the paper is best known for its role in preserving Belarusian language, culture, and art. The paper closed in 1914 as it became illegal to criticize their government during World War I and was re-established in 1991. In the 2010's, Nasha Niva moved online and became one of the most popular websites in Belarus. In 2020, following Nasha Niva's coverage of the Belarusian presidential election and subsequent protests, the KGB declared the paper an extremist organization, arresting reporters and forcing many others into exile. 

Nasha Niva continues to operate from Vilnius, Lithuania and remains popular, especially thanks to their video content, which receives millions of views on YouTube and TikTok from Belarusians. In order to remain popular and relevant, the paper has innovated in a variety of ways since 2020, finding ways to evade censorship, recruiting young reporters, and developing comedic content. Nasha Niva's online comedy and satirical shows poking fun at Lukashenka and other political elites in Belarus are particularly popular.
This podcast is hosted by Bakhti Nishanov and produced by Alanna Novetsky in conjunction with the Senate Recording Studio

On this episode of the Transatlantic, host Bakhti Nishanov talks to Georgiy Kent, who took an unusual detour after finishing his graduate program in May, biking over 4,000 miles across the United States to crowdsource funds for Ukraine. From the Oregon coast to Washington D.C., Kent interacted with hundreds of Americans along the way, engaging in dialogue about Russia's war on Ukraine. 
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Georgiy Kent served as a Max Kampelman Policy Fellow at the Helsinki Commission, working on political and economic projects to hold Russia accountable for its ongoing war in Ukraine. He has worked at the Aspen Strategy Group, Harvard Kennedy School, Partnership for Public Service, and Atlantic Council. A graduate of Harvard College and Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Georgiy specializes in security, economy, and state development in Europe, Asia, and post-communist societies. Today, he is an Associate for Research and Client Strategy at Political Alpha, a political risk advisory firm in D.C., but this summer he decided to hop on a bicycle and cycle across America to raise money for Ukraine.
This podcast is hosted by Bakhti Nishanov and produced by Alanna Novetsky, in conjunction with the Senate Recording Studio.